Translator’s Subjectivity In C-E Legal Translation From The Perspective Of George Steiner’s Hermeneutic Motion

With the pragmatic turn of Western philosophy in 1970 s and the cultural turn of translation study in 1990 s broadening people’s horizon, the issue of translator’s subjectivity has attracted more and more attention. While legal translators who usually adopt the word-for-word translation method in legal translation still enjoy the least subjectivity, their initiative and creativity actually play vital roles, which directly influence the quality of translation. As to the legal translation, translator’s subjectivity is mainly manifested in the accurate understanding of the original text. In this regard, George Steiner’s Hermeneutic Motion theory provides us a useful research approach for the study of translator’s subjectivity and for a better understanding of the legal translation. Thus, the author of this thesis is to explore the translator’s subjectivity functioned in legal translation by following George Steiner’s Hermeneutic Motion theory, decomposing the translator’s subjectivity into four steps----trust, aggression, incorporation and restitution, which makes this Steiner’s abstract concept more concrete.This thesis centers on how the translator’s subjectivity functions in each of these four steps, firstly, in the “trust” step, translator’s subjectivity is manifested in the selection of the source text; secondly, in the “aggression” step, translator’s subjectivity is displayed in the comprehension of the source text; thirdly, in the “incorporation” step, translator’s subjectivity is demonstrated in the expression of the original text; and finally, in the “restitution” step, translator’s subjectivity is observed in the restoration of the imbalance between the source text and the target text. Although Steiner divides Hermeneutic Motion into four steps, these four steps are hardly separated with each other in the translation practices, so translators should comprehensively integrate these four steps to play their subjectivity for accomplishing an excellent translation. At the same time, Steiner’s Hermeneutic Motion is an abstract theory, which lacks practical operability in the translation practices. So, based on a thorough comprehension of Steiner’s Hermeneutic Motion, the author suggests some translation techniques for legal translators to bring into full play their subjectivity at the lexical, the syntactical and the textual level in C-E legal translation, thus hopes to provide some guidance in the future legal translation practices.